My Top 5 shows of 2013

It’s that time of year when media begin ranking their best and worst of the year.

In this supposedly “golden age of television” (and I don’t necessarily disagree with that), it’s very hard to choose the best of the best. So I’ll stick with my tradition of choosing from the best new shows of the year.

In no particular order I am giving honourable mentions to: Wentworth, Orange is the New Black, A Place to Call Home, The Time of our Lives, Borgen and Please Like Me.

For my money House of Cards was the most powerful mix of story, performance and direction, but being produced by Netflix it also represents 2013’s legacy -the growing shift to binge television. Hence its top place. Broadcast television is now on notice to find ways of dealing with it.

That said, if I was to award a prize for the best single episode of television this year it would go to Breaking Bad‘s “Ozymandias” S5E14.

Tomorrow voting will open in the annual TV Tonight Awards -your chance to choose the best and worst on screen in 2013.

I guess you could argue it is the golden age of television, but it’s really due to so much stuff being made that something good has to emerge just by the law of averages. There are some good shows around for sure, but there are infinitely more that are complete rubbish. TV networks of today are awful, burying gold behind unimaginative reality TV.